Aerobic and anaerobic bacterial causes of acute meningitis

ABSTRACT

In this work a trial was done to study the aerobic and anaerobic bacteria causing acute meningitis among Egyptians. Cerebrospinal fluid samples were obtained from 55 cases of acute meningitis attending Imbaba and Abbasia fever hospitals during the period from Nov. 1987 to Jan. 1988. Each CSF sample was examined microscopically and cultured aerobically in 5% CO2 and anaerobically. Out of 55 cases 32 cases [58.2%] were positive for aerobic bacteria. The aerobic bacteria were N. meningitides from 17 cases [30.9%] H. influenzae from 5 cases [9.1%], S. penumoniae from 5 cases [8.3%], E. coli from 4 caes [8.3%] and S. aureus from 2 cases [93.6%]. The anaerobic organism was gram-negative diplococcus belonging to the family veillonellaceae